SHOOTING STARS: New reality series focuses on Vegas-based photographer

Las Vegas’ roster of reality-TV stars ranges from “Peepshow’s” Holly Madison on E! to “Pawn Stars’ ” Richard, Rick and Corey Harrison on History. (History’s online store even has “Pawn Stars” bobbleheads featuring the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop’s proprietors, who are scheduled to shoot this week.)

Rick Dale (pictured) of Rick’s Restorations may join the reality-star parade soon, thanks to his “Pawn Stars” spin-off, History’s “American Restoration,” which drew more than 3 million viewers during last week’s debut, the first of four airdates. (So far.)

The latest Las Vegan to step into the reality-TV spotlight: award-winning photographer Peter Lik, pictured, who’s the focus of a new series from NBC’s Peacock Productions.

Despite the fact that the Australian-born Lik’s been based in Las Vegas for five years, Neon Nirvana itself probably won’t play much of a role in the show.

That’s because the 12-episode series, currently in production, follows the photographer’s globe-trotting adventures to such exotic locales as Hawaii, where he ventures onto the lava ledge of an active volcano to shoot dramatic middle-of-the-night images.

“It’s not as much about photography as it is about Peter, the characters he meets and his incredible adventures to the far reaches of the earth to get the shot,” according to Sharon Scott, Peacock Productions’ executive vice president.

Even though the emphasis is on traveling the globe, some Las Vegas footage is expected, whether depicting Lik at home or at his galleries at the Forum Shops at Caesars, The Venetian and Mandalay Bay. (Lik has 14 galleries around the world, from New York to Florida, Hawaii to Australia.)

In announcing the Peacock Productions deal earlier this year, Lik describes the show “an incredible opportunity” in which he plans to “document and share my journeys in real time from both sides of the lens.”

The show doesn’t have a title yet — but today’s the deadline to enter a name-the-show contest on the photographer’s website, www.peterlik.com. (Click on the site’s blog section if you’d like to enter; whoever submits the winning entry will receive a signed artist’s proof of one of Lik’s pictures.)

Twain-ing day: Country singer Shania Twain adds TV host to her resume with a new show for Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network, which replaces Discovery Health Jan. 1.

The show — which has a working title of “Why Not? With Shania Twain” — wraps a five-day Vegas visit today; scheduled locations range from the Strip to the Fremont Street Experience.

On the show, Twain will “open up about her life-altering heartbreak” — she’s now divorced from her longtime producer, Robert “Mutt” Lange — “and how she’s moving on,” according to OWN publicity. The Las Vegas footage is expected to air next spring.

"World" traveler: After a five-day Vegas visit, British cricket star Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff (pictured) has departed Southern Nevada.

It’ll be the culmination of a tour that has taken the upcoming “Freddie vs. the World” from Mexico to Canada’s Yukon.

The seven-part series pits the recently retired Flintoff against fellow retired sports stars in a variety of challenges, from wing-walking in Palm Springs to rodeoing in Fort Worth, Texas, explains Olly Calleja of ZigZag Productions, which is producing the series for Britain’s ITV4.

While in Las Vegas, Flintoff planned to skydive, visit Boulder City’s Bootleg Canyon Flightlines and try drag racing at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. His competition: Irish boxer Steve Collins.

As for what brought the show to Southern Nevada, Calleja’s got a ready answer: “There’s no better place than Las Vegas for glamour and razzmatazz.” Not that “Freddie vs. the World’s” Vegas stop will emphasize that. “It’s less about the sleazy stuff,” he says, and more about “the fun and scenic stuff.”

Holding pattern: The post-apocalyptic zombie comedy “First Platoon” was scheduled to begin principal photography today.
But the project is “in a holding pattern ’til one of our stars finishes up on a current project,” reports producer Michela Angelini of Las Vegas-based First Earth Films.

As always, stay tuned to Shooting Stars for word on when the zombie-fighting “First Platoon” is finally on the march.